[clear] UPDATE 12.55pm: Margo’s Q&A with dissident Narrabri Councillor Bevan O’Regan Bevan, 81, is a retired wheat and cattle farmer and the deputy Mayor of Narrabri Council with three sons and three grandchildren. “My hobbies are studying world and domestic politics, and my interests are my family and the farming world.”. I spoke with him this morning after he revealed improper use of the Rural Fire Service by the Council to evict the #leardblockade camp from a road reserve and lodged a motion to rescind council’s decision. Margo: You seem to be alleging abuse of the Rural Fire Service (RFS) for an improper purpose by the mayor to eviction the blockade […]

By Margaret O’Connor 1 November 2013 If you want a quick and telling glimpse of the psychopathology that infested Rupert Murdoch’s power house tabloid News of the World (NoTW), turn to the Leveson Inquiry Hearings for Wednesday, 29 November, 2011. On that day, Paul McMullan, ex-NoTW reporter, reluctantly gave testimony about his work practices there – and, in defence of his and his colleagues’ calculated violations of others’ rights to personal space and boundaries, became globally famous for his take on the concept of privacy, proclaiming ‘privacy is for paedos….privacy is evil…..it allows (people) to do bad things.’ Then in response to this, Counsel to the Inquiry, Robert jay QC, asks […]

By Noely Neate Source: YaThink Date: December 13th, 2012 The day after Gillard’s (now famous) ‘misogyny’ speech I woke up thinking I was in the twilight zone. Everyone I knew was amazed or affected in some way, yet, the morning news and papers barely referred to it, instead focussing on Slipper resigning? I was seriously, WTF? Thankfully over the next few days the so-called ‘serious’ media commentators were basically shamed into at least acknowledging it (even if in some terribly conservative white male stances) by social media and overseas media. This whole #Ashbygate (as it is referred to on twitter) episode is a major déjà vu, the only difference is, not only […]

Subtlety lost By Craig Emerson Date: 24 December 2012 Source: Craig Emerson At Sydney University in the early 1970s a course simply called “Government” was offered to economics, arts and law students. It was a time of social upheaval and the election of the Whitlam Government had ended 23 years of conservative rule. The Murdoch press had backed a change of government. My tutor in Government, Lex Watson, a gay rights activist, had set us a task: to identify bias in the media. But as left-wing as Lex was, the six-week project wasn’t about left versus right, it was about the techniques used by the print media to slant a story to […]

[View the story “Timeline for #AshbyConspiracy & Questions for #AshbyInquiry” on Storify] A Federal Court Judge has found a conspiracy by James Ashby, Karen Doane, Mal Brough to advance their own interest and that of the LNP. Mr Abbott maintains that he had no specific knowledge. Here is a timeline & questions. This timeline will not cover every detail, as all of this was already covered extensively in the court case ruling as well as the media. What is covered is some of the aspects of the timeline which do not receive as much attention for whatever reason. There are some questions on the record from Twitter below in the second […]

By Victoria Rollinson December 15, 2012 Source: victoriarollison.com The Watergate scandal was, apparently, rather big news at the time. People went to prison, the President of the USA was forced to resign and investigative reporters, Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein became household names. Nixon’s Republican party came undone through a conspiracy to find dirt on their rivals in the Democratic Party. Dirt that was to be used in an election smear campaign. In the end, they sufficiently smeared themselves out of office, when Nixon’s replacement, President Ford, lost the 1976 election to Democrat Jimmy Carter. As scandals go, I can see that this one was very newsworthy. When President Nixon said he […]

Quote of the Year 2012 is a tie between Ms Alberici and Mr Abbott: Emma Alberici: “Virtually every commentator in the land is echoing the thoughts of the Opposition on this one. “ Mr Abbott on #AshbyConspiracy: This is a tawdry state of affairs, to say the least. This shows our esteemed mainstream media at work. It is a study in how the press makes sausages. We have our very own Australian Watergate minus investigative journalism. What happened? Where did it go? Does mainstream journalism still exist or is it now left to the Fifth Estate, social media, blogs, twitter to do their work. You decide.